Live as a Child of the King {guest post}

I’ve read it a million times before. Okay, maybe not a million times, but enough times to know it well.

“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.” (I Corinthians 12:12 NKJV)

Today it became real to me in a new way. On this morning, we said goodbye to our 8 year old daughter, and she drove away from us in a white pickup truck. Through the hours before, and during the hugs and kisses (and then one last hug and kiss) I managed to hold back the tears. I didn’t want her to feel bad about going. She might have stayed if I had asked her to, but she is gone. She is with my in-laws for 12 days, about 600 miles away, on a summer adventure.

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As we sat down to eat our dinner, my husband and our two young boys and I, I realized what a void her absence created. I looked across the table at her empty seat and thought about what it feels like to not have all of your children with you. It feels like a part of me is missing, a big part, like an arm or a leg. As I sat there thinking about how that feels, the well known verses from I Corinthians came to my mind. I was struck with the reality of it, how we are the body of Christ, each member placed intentionally.

“If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now, God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.” (I Corinthians 12: 17,18 NKJV)

I though about our daughter’s place in our family. I thought about how God created her to be an optimist, full of enthusiasm and joy, and how she makes our family complete. Then I thought about myself and my place in the body.

Am I fulfilling the role that He himself assigned to me?

Am I being the best wife I can be, serving my husband, submitting to the authority that God has given him?

Am I being the best mother that I can be, shepherding little hearts in the way of the Lord?

Am I being a good daughter, honoring my mother and father in everything I say and do (Yes, even as adults we are to do this)?

Am I fulfilling my role in the body of Christ?

Simple questions, yes, but questions that I forget to ask myself amidst the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. Most days, I’m just trying to get to the end of my waking hours with my sanity! I’m concentrating more on how to be a good mother and wife, rather than how to fulfill the role that the Lord has given me as a daughter of the King? Can you see the difference? If I would only focus on who I am as His daughter, then all the rest would fall into place.

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So I will start here… In the mornings, before my feet even hit the floor, I will ask the Lord to help me to live as a child of the King. This is something I should already be doing, before the breakfast requests and the pulling in one direction and the other. I will give him my thoughts and actions, my words and my heart. I will make this my heart’s desire and I will live each day intentionally.

What will you do?

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Jenny describes herself as a Yankee girl, born and raised just outside of Chicago, living in Tennessee. She is a blessed wife and mother of three young children, and the owner of Southern Institute of Domestic Arts and Crafts where she blogs about family, faith, sewing, and healthy living.

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